Origin of the Rumanians [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION A "ROMANTIC" IMAGINATION: THE "DAKO-ROMAN" EXISTENCE. One of the unsolved questions of the European Historiography is the problem of the Rumanian origin. Somé indubitable traces seem to prove that the origin of the Vlach (Wallachian) people was actually the southern part of the Balkans. It seems that somé groups of "Romanized" Balkan shepherds survived the historical storms that followed the fali of the Román Empire. These groups migrated gradually from the south towards the north, and arriving first to the Bulgárián than to the Munthenian area (*1), with a natural increase in the population the density increased to such an extent that then appeared the basis of a genuine nationality. The modern Rumanian political interest sharply opposed to the facts of the historical migration and evolution of the Vlachs. Rumanian "romantic-minded" nationalists presented a theory which connected the descendents of the Wallachians directly to the Romans; especially to the Román conquest in Dacia. This romantic imagination became a myth, and gradually alsó became a political propaganda. Influenced by this newly recovered myth, western historians (even those who previously adopted the documented migration of the south-Balkanic Vlachs) became confused. They were effected by the romantic idea that the modern representatives of "Urbs Eterna" were still in existence in Eastern Europe! Having actually two theory of Wallachian origin from now on (the northwardly Vlach migration and the newly discovered Dako-Roman theory), most ofthe historians faced this problem as one of the unsolved questions of European history. Realistic Rumanian politicians were never really sure that the romantic myth of Dako-Roman origin have had anything to do with historical reality. They realized however, that this myth was useful to serve another dream which was the dream of "Greater Rumania". They found that young nationalists need historic national myths and if a young nation does not have such myth, one should be created. Therefore, even without real historical evidence, Rumanian imperialists used the myth of "DakoRoman-continuity" as a great incentive for the "re-conquest" of those territories which were "lost" by their "Dak" and "Román forefathers".